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June 8, 2007
The greening of Israel
Activist offers ideas for a better environment.
REBECA KUROPATWA
In the book of Kohelet Rabbah 7:13, it says that God told Adam,
"See my works – all that I have created I made for you.
Be mindful then that you do not spoil and destroy My world –
there is no one after you to repair it."
On May 17, Noam Dolgin spoke to a Winnipeg audience at Etz Chayim
Synagogue about Israel's ecological future. As the chair of the
American-based Green Zionist Alliance (GZA), Dolgin told the audience
about the group's efforts to make Israel green and to build relationships
between Israeli and Diaspora Jews to improve Israel's ecosystem.
Dolgin is the associate director of the Teva Learning Centre and
founder of Canada's first Jewish environmental organization, Adam
va-Adamah, in Vancouver. He was recently one of two elected GZA
delegates to attend the World Zionist Congress.
He told the audience that he is the fifth generation in his family
to be born in a different place. "Jews, for generations, have
been transient," said Dolgin. "The early premise of the
Zionist movement was for Jews to reconnect with nature and natural
living."
He suggested that Israel is now far from that original premise.
"It is not exactly a holistic, socialist, down to earth society
today," he said. "Kibbutzim and moshavs are not what they
used to be. There are very few actual Jews working the land anymore.
Arabs are tending the land, while Jews are going back to the role
of [the] overseeing intellectual."
Dolgin said Israel is slipping away from a naturalist society, because
of economic development and security. "It is back to the underpinning
model of the Israeli committee," he said, "concrete, roads,
and development."
This brings a whole other kind of problem, he explained. "Every
Israeli lives in deficit, especially in the low tourism times of
year. If something is not economically beneficial, it is not pursued
in Israeli policy."
What is being predicted now, said Dolgin, is that the next big war
will be fought over water or other natural resources. "Peace
and justice in the Middle East are intertwined with resources,"
he asserted. "The ratio of water use in Israel is 10 to one,
with Israelis using way more water than Palestinians. Species preservation
and open space are two other big issues in Israel that are being
badly affected by the security wall, among other things."
Audience member Alon Weinberg, of Adah Mah'nitoba, commented that,
"With climate change, the environment is seen more and more
as a human security issue."
Dolgin pointed out a very positive aspect of Israel's environmental
protectionism – that Israel is the only country to leave the
20th century with more trees than it previously had, thanks to the
Jewish National Fund (JNF). "The JNF has gone over a lot of
incarnations and developments over the years," he said. "It
is now taking positive steps toward Israeli environmental consciousness."
He said Israel's challenges today are air pollution (especially
in the Tel-Aviv/Ashdod area), water shortages, the Dead Sea's death,
waste disposal (there is very little recycling), population density
and loss of open space.
Dolgin noted that Canada's GZA goal, through the World Zionist Congress,
is to make a positive difference in protecting Israel's natural
environment. The GZA's most recent resolutions are strengthening
the JNF's environmental policies, recycling paper for Congress and
Zionist organizations and requiring environmental impact statements
for WZO construction projects.
Dolgin added that the GZA's next political goal is to run candidates
in elections in Canada and Britain. As well, the GZA wants to branch
out into educational sectors and retreat organizing, raising the
issue of Israel and its environment across North America.
Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
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